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Nick Drake
Today on 19th June, Nick Drake would have been 59.
Talk about Nick Drake these days and his name will be met with quiet reverence, followed by an animated discussion on just how Nick Drake became the god of acoustic music and how he influenced an entire generation. I’m not be facetious here, but over the last few years since the trend for the singer/songwriter became hip again. We have been hearing about Nick Drake the mega-legend that once walked among us. Now before the Drake fans start putting pen to paper, let me explain that I have been into the mans music since 1970 when I first heard Hazey Jane on the “Bumpers” compilation LP. His haunting fragile vocals and introspective lyrics, gave each of his songs a sad wistful melancholic edge. Bedsitland, 2 am- circa 1970 positively echoed to the plaintive sounds of Drake. He was great but lets no get carried away he wasn’t a god!
Nicholas Rodney Drake was born in Rangoon, Burma on 19th June 1948 into a middle-classed family. The family moved to Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire four years later. Nick learnt to play piano at an early age, thanks to his musical family particularly his mother. The boy Drake attended Eagle House, public boarding School, where he was known to be somewhat aloof, a trait that would compound his often frail and fragile musical life. His first band the Perfumed Gardeners, included a young Chris de Burgh, he and the group didn’t last too long. Pretty soon the keyboard playing Drake, began learning the guitar, and developed his own unique style and tuning that would become a perfect musical canvass for his beautiful voice and though-provoking lyrics. His musicianship was honed during his University days. It was here he discovered the pleasures of folk music, and began gigging, eventually being noticed by Fairport Convention bassist Ashley Hutchings in 1968. Hutchings felt that Nick already looked like a star. He introduced him to the American producer Joe Boyd. Boyd was a hugely influential figure, who helped to supply the raw material to the fledgling Island Record Company, via his Witchseason management company.
He signed to Island Records and released his debut album Five Leaves Left in 1969. The Album was recorded while Drake was still at Cambridge University, and despite countless disagreements in the studio between himself and Joe Boyd (who had decided to produce the album). It eventually saw the light of day July 1969. The album Pink Moon often overshadows it nowadays, but many fans considered it to be the artist’s finest work, but any album that includes such highlights as Time Has Told me, Cello Song, River Man and the incredible Way To Blue, is all right in my book. Unlike most musicians, Drake was not a natural communicator away from his songs. His live performances were rare, and the few he did play were painful affairs, with little or no interaction with what was often a somewhat bemused audience. Like a certain other Warwickshire man before him, Nick Drake was popular during his lifetime, but not anywhere as near famous as he would become in death. Many blamed this on the lack of gigs and interviews (he only ever did one, during his Island years). Insomnia and depression had begun to take hold of him, and as his career grew, he became more withdrawn. His second albumBryter Layter released in 1970, was Boyd’s attempt to make Drake more commercial. Especially evident on the suprisingly uptempo Hazey Jane II. The album included some of Britians finest folk musicans like Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks, Richard Thompson and former Velvet Underground legend John Cale. All (even Nick) were delighted with the final result, but despite it’s inclusion of breathtaking songs like Hazey Jane, One of These Things First Northern Sky and the jazzy epic Poor Boy it failed to cause a ripple. Boyd left for America and Nick’s mental health began to take a nosedive.
Despite all this, Drakes did produce a third album and what was to be his last. Now almost a recluse, he recorded the LP over two nights, no backing musicians this time, just Vocals, guitar (and piano on the title track). This album probably stands as being the nearest to the essence of the Nick Drake sound, It picked up some favourable press on it’s 1972 release. Nick returned to Warwickshire, now seldom speaking to anyone, even his family. He was penniless and often refused to cut his nails or wash his hair. John Martyn wrote the song Solid Air about him, describing him as described him as the most withdrawn person he’d ever met. Drake began work on a fourth album, but only four tracks were ever completed. One of these tracks Black Eyed Dog, is almost too painfull to listen to, showing as it does a musical genius playing on the abyss of his own destiny. On November 25th 1974, Nick was found dead at his parent’s Warwickshire home from an overdose of antidepressants, he was just 26. Some claim he never meant to take his life. The reality is that accident or not, like many atists, he had to die before his music would set the world alight, he would never know stardom, as I said he was great but he wasn’t a god!
Nick Drake trivia